Jury To Decide Whether Former Patton Motel Must Close

Defense Fails To Get Judge To Dismiss Case

July 14, 1999|By WILLIAM H. MCMICHAEL Daily Press

NEWPORT NEWS — The future of the former Patton Motel will rest in a jury's hands.

Defense attorney Gary A. Mills spent the better part of an hour Tuesday morning trying to convince Judge Robert W. Curran of Newport News Circuit Court to dismiss the case against the much-maligned midtown motel, site of numerous prostitution and drug-related arrests over the years. But Curran denied the motions and set an Oct. 18 trial date.

"We've been praying for this," said Amy Condon, president of the crime watch association in the motel's Ivy Farms neighborhood, after the hearing.

"We think the judge felt pretty confident that we did our job and that the commonwealth did theirs," added Dallas Miller, an Ivy Farms resident who in January submitted the petition to the city asking that it shut down the former Patton.

Ivy Farms citizens began meeting to discuss their concerns about the motel more than 11/2 years ago.

The motel, now known as the Traveler's Inn Motel, has been owned since 1979 by J.D. Patel of Hampton. Patel has said he changed the name in an attempt to help change its negative image in the community. He did not attend Tuesday's hearing.

According to police records, the Jefferson Avenue motel was the scene of 213 arrests between Jan. 1, 1995, and April 22, 1998, and another 45 in the final five months of 1998. Ivy Farms residents say drug and sex traffic at the motel has often spilled over into their neighborhood.

Patel claims that he has cleared out the problem tenants. Condon and others agree that conditions have improved, but they say they're still concerned.

Shutting down the Patton won't solve their concerns, Mills said.

"It's obviously a declining neighborhood," he said. "Closing this business and making a vacant building is not going to make a difference in the blight that's in that area."

In court, Mills argued that the charge of "public nuisance" wasn't specific enough. "What is the Patton accused of doing?" he asked Curran. "Is it accused of letting prostitutes walk its sidewalk?" If so, that's how the charge should be worded, he said.

Curran said that under Virginia law on public nuisances, the charge was proper.

Mills also claimed that the findings of the special grand jury found their way into a front-page article in the March 19, 1999, Daily Press. Said Mills, "I would just be concerned about the taint" such a story could give the case. That taint could sway the jury in the direction of a guilty verdict, he said.

Curran said he appreciated Mills' concern about pretrial publicity. But he'd found "no evidence" that anyone with the newspaper had seen a copy of the special grand jury's report. Besides, he added, "Publicity is something that you have to deal with in every case that has public interest."

If the jury concludes that the motel is a public nuisance, it could be put out of business under the public nuisance law. If that happens, Patel would be held responsible and could be fined as much as $10,000.

William H. McMichael can be reached at 247-7862 or by e-mail at bmcmichael@dailypress.com